Author
Topic: Promoting Beekeeping (Read 7572 times)

A final note: a local radio station is offering $300 to anyone willing to take up beekeeping to help get bees back here in the Garden State (a highly over rated name for this state - it has been 100 years since NJ had anything to do about gardening/food production) we are now a bedroom society trafficing between NY and PA. But this $300 is a nice effort, and although I cannot find any info on their website, here it is - it might be worth a call to some of you.

www.k985radio.com - they have a "Kontact" page (sic) that at least gives phone numbers and addresses. I just heard about this last night, so I don't know about any rules that they specify, but it may well worth be checking into.

I have posted this info twice before and listed the links. It is sponsored by the Ag dept and is already filled. NJ still produces huge quantities of some food products. We also produce some of the most desirable food for human consumption as well. We arguably have some of the best corn, blueberries, cranberries and peaches you can find anywhere. In fact, a peach from Gloucester county won the Best Peach contest at the Atlanta Olympics . Just come down south you will still see farms notw/standing its bedroom community lifestyle throughout the state. As gas prices continmue to climb, local food sources will become more valuable and bees needed more.

Logged

"The more complex the Mind, the Greater the need for the simplicity of Play".

Personally I feel there has to be a pull from within to keep bees...Funny, it had never occurred to me until one year ago April. AS a child I had watched my father's friend work with bees, and extract honey in the kitchen through a big sack with a cincher-upper that he twisted, we watched the honey ooze out into a big metal drum.

Then maybe 15+ years ago a swarm came to my land, I called the local beek and he came and got them. He brought me a veil and I stood and watched as he clipped the branch and off went the bees. He was happy, I was elated.

Then last April, the day before Easter, I was telling my family how I might like to keep bees. The very next say, Easter Sunday, I was all alone, and thought I would give the local apiary a call..sure enough they were open. From that day on it was as though someone opened a door and the possibilities re: bees came flooding though.

Maybee the people like the idea of beekeeping, but just don't quite have the heart or determination to do it ?yet???

Hi Brian,I think your problem can be summed up nicely by a quote from "The Queen Must Die" by William Longgood:"Several were discouraged by the initial cost or were victims of what I have come to think of as the 'fantasy curve'. Fantasy draws many people to attend classes and attempt new ventures, but when they realize the work and commitment required, the majority tend to fall by the wayside, a kind of social Darwinism that separates the committed from the uncommitted, the interested from the uninterested, the doers from the dreamers. The fantasy curve invariably swoops downward. I conceived it when I taught writing courses in New York, but it applies to most human endeavors."Of course, not everyone is meant to be a beekeeper. I guess it's better if they find that out on the front end before they waste their time and YOURS. You have made a very generous offer. I'm sure that there is someone in your area just wishing for such an opportunity. Don't give up yet!

In efforts with my association. I have been doing school dates. Just held our introduction to beekeeping course. Getting people interested in beekeeping is kinda of like firing a shotgun. You try to cover as broad an area as possible. While actually only hitting a few targets. Out of the 100 people I talk to about beekeeping maybe 1 will really get into it.But I will take that one.

Sincerely,Brendhan

Logged

The status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just need to rule it. Dr. Horrible

Its really a big decision to embrace a hobby. And with so many interesting ones available its hard to choose which one. They all require some investment of money and a lot of investment of time. Like a while back Brian posted something about pigeons. Well darn if that didn't catch my interest. but i can barely keep up with what i have going already. I think there are a lot of people in the same boat.

I have had so many peaple Iterested in the bees since ccd got so public. When I was selling honey at the local farmers market , with my ob hive it got hard to keep up with the questions. Peaple are concerned about what is going on. I wish I had better knowledge to pass on. Just keep on trying before long you will find peaple willing to learn and work to keep bees alive and healthy, at least that is my goal. I do love talking to the kids, they do have some great questions. let the spring bloom be great everywhere.

i would love to have a mentor like you Brian - keep offering, someone will bite. it has taken me 2 years to get it together enough to start a hive - the bees will arrive in a few weeks (very exciting time for me). i am guilty of wanting to do a great many things, but that stems from being interested in so many different things. i find i get burned out on a single hobby and then jump to another and then back to the first to a third to a fourth and fifth, back to the third... it's just how some people are i guess.

right now my model railroad is collecting dust as is my backpacking gear, but i'll blame the later on our 5 month old ;)

Its really a big decision to embrace a hobby. And with so many interesting ones available its hard to choose which one. They all require some investment of money and a lot of investment of time. Like a while back Brian posted something about pigeons. Well darn if that didn't catch my interest. but i can barely keep up with what i have going already. I think there are a lot of people in the same boat.

You have a good point, if you think beekeeping is expensive try racing pigeons. I'm getting old, I'm disabled, and live on a fixed income but I do it. Mainly, I guess, because the other option is to give up and die. I wanted to do that too but was told it wasn't my time yet, still had somethings I'm suppose to do on this side the curtian.

I've offered to do demo's for the school district, maybe I need to approach the superintendent instead of the teachers. I used to be a BSA counciller for the beekeeping merit badge but they've discontinued that program. I hadn't thought of the 4H.

Logged

Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Steve Both hobbies are on hold...can you imagine what a drooling little mouth & exploring hands would do to your trains??? :shock: NOT a pretty picture. Get one of those kid backpacks & take your little one on short hikes, they love the outdoors....just make sure you have a head covering for yourself, specially if you have an "urper" like mine was..ewww! :-PBrian, I have pigeons too but not the fancy racing ones!Jody

our oldest is nearly 7 and he has a backpack and has overnighted with dad. he is excited about getting a hive - we are going to check out hive supplies tomorrow and he probably annoyed his school teacher about it all day :) the 5 month old has yet to ride in the backpack carrier, but once we get a 60+ degree day i'll be lugging him up a ridgeline.

i think the key to successful promotion is to downplay honey and wax and get people excited to be adding to the health of their community. that's my many motivation for keeping bees - that and they are fascinating to watch. i'll want an observation hive at some point - just not sure how much drooled on glass the girls can handle - from my 5 month old of course :evil:

Racing pigeons aren't fancy, from even a short distance it is hard for a novice to tell them from feral birds.

Fancy pigeons are Jocabins (long swirling neck feathers), Fantails (extra tail feathers), Owls (Short beaked), Hooded pigeons like Nuns and some rollers and tumblers, and those with feathered feet like Swallows, and Pouters (stand upright with large crops).

Other types of birds are Tumblers, Rollers, High Fliers, and Squab types. Of the Squab type White Kings are probably the best known but Giant Runts are not only the largest domestic pigeon but an oxymoron.

Logged

Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

as a kid i used to sneak into a neighbors pigeon coupes, he also had a hawk in the shed. one day he invited a few of the neighborhood kids along with him to release the pigeons. we drive about 10 miles away with several cages in the back of his station wagon. he would call out a tag number and i would write it down as he released it.

when we got back to his house and checked the coupe, there the pigeons were. i was very impressed with that, they were able to get home from that seemingly far away place. i can appreciate what went into training them, but my friends thought the guy was nuts, they just went along because he had a very cute daughter. that's reason i went too, yeah, that's it.

Earl is a feral I found in a parking lot with a broken wing. He was hunkered there even with cars moving about. I can't believe no one else noticed something was off. Anyways after chasing him for 15 min thru bushes, under cars,,around things in my suit & now shredded hose I finally got him & wandered into my meeting asking for a box. Took him home, set the wing but all I had was vetwrap & he kept tearing it off so his wing didn't heal right, he can't really fly. Sooooo I couldn't let him go as planned. He hates everyone, wing slaps, bites & shakes your skin like a pit bull, been 2 years now. Hence his name Angry Earl. Put him out in the old cockatiel avairy & he looked so lonely I had to get him a girl. I don't know what she is, has the curly neck feathers, is smaller & rose brown color & white. She was going to be sold for bird dog training, the guy just let me have her for the tax amount, about $2. I'm thinking the dogs have more fun than the birds on that one! Anyways, they make beautifull babies, always sort of pied, but always white wings, the dark grey but more of the roseish hilights. They don't fly in a straight line, they sort of dip & change direction, its fun to watch em as they fly in formation like the blue angels, beautiful when the sun is shining on the white wings! We have one of the babies, Perve who is in love with his mom..took him to where the other ones live now & he was home before we were..took him to my daughters 6 miles away & he was home the next morning. I can't put him in with Earl cause they fight & Earl is a gimp so he hangs around on the top of the cage dancing & singing & fighting with his Dad thru the wire. Have a great day!

I like they way my birds look when they fly against a background of a distant storm. If the clouds are to the east and the sun shines on them from the west it makes the best background for white racers to be seen or photographed! Even if the birds are blue bars(gray with dark bars on the wings) or dark checks( bluish charcoal color with a sort of checkeboard pattern to the wings) or even any other color but white, the gray background still makes the pigeons look beautiful!( the underside of wings are usually very lite colored anyways, except for black pigeons).your friend,john

John, yes that is beautiful, they are shining like lights! I have 2 new babies today. They were acting like something was up the last couple of days & the shells are on the ground today. It's kinda cool the way they take em away from the nest. Don't have time to look at em now, going to BUNKO with the gals but will examine them later today & take pics..they are uuggllyy, almost as ugly as cockatiels when hatched!! Jody

8 months ago i never even considered keeping bee's, i knew there was a problem with them but the idea and thought never really entered my head until me and a friend chopped a tree down that had a feral hive in it. The initial thought then was lets rob the hive of the honey. We got a bit out but the bees got upset so we left it for the day. During the night the more i thought about it the more i wanted to do something. I tried to get some help from local bee keepers who all basically said . we are not interested, they must be AHB , its October we could never do anything with them there too late let them die.

I did get help form one guy in McAllister's who sold me a Deep and a supper with bottom board and telescopic top for $50 the supper was full of honey so i gave it ago. Unfortunately it didn't work out, i think the bee's got wet one night and died of cold. But i was glad i gave it ago it gave me determination to have a go. but here comes the frustrating bit !

Since then i have found it difficult to find a club or a bee keeper who was willing to teach me. our ag office doesn't appear to be very proactive on beekeeping and the nearest club is 2-3hrs away. I don't particularly want to travel that far. I do now have some one that is interesting in helping me but its taken along time to find that area. I think if other protential bee keepers are having simular problems then i can see why they walk away.

I think allot of it is also down to education of the public. its how we go about doing this that is very important !

There are 3 groups I've been involved with that have tendency to be a bit over secretive: Coon Hound runners, Pigeon Flyers, and OLD Beekeepers. The people in the 1st group each like to think they have a special secret that makes their pack of dogs better than everybody else's. The same for the 2nd group only more so. In the 3rd group each beekeeper thinks he has a special secret but doesn't want to be confronted with ideas that might be even better--the I've always done it this way and I'm always gonna club.

poka-bee--I think your lady might be a roller or Jacobin, depending on the amount of swirl on the neck feathers. A Jacobin has feathers so long on it's neck that it can literally hide its head in them, a roller as more of flip of feathers on the back of the head.Rollers do a roll or stagger while in flight and good ones will tumble 50 feet straight down head over heals all the way. Very Beautiful to watch. Fancy pigeons like the Jacobins, Swallows, and Fantails fly awkwardly due to the extra feathers on the various parts of their body. It sounds to me like you lady is at least part roller and Mad Earl is what is commonally referred to as a Track Pigeon aka feral. Ferals are what all other breeds of pigeons were bred from and to which they revert when allowed to go wild for several generations.BTW, there has been cases where tamed "feral" pigeons have out flown pedigree Racing Homers over a given distance.

Steveouk--I've seen the same reaction, but I think it is the duty of any curator of a craft, be it beekeeping, candlemaking, cabinet making, etc., to pass the craft on to future generations. Every bit of knowledge lost by keeping to ourselves has to be re-invented by someone further down the road.

Logged

Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

We had 70 people signed up for the beginning beekeeping course in Atlanta and then some of them join the organization, but I think we would have more interest continuing if two things happened:

1. The course ends with talk about poison in the hives and then Africanized honeybees. Personally I think that scares beekeepers away. I suggested that they end with the honey harvest, but they haven't taken my suggestion for two years running.

2. The meeting immediately after the short course should be appealing to new beekeepers. Last year in the meeting immediately after the short course, I did a funny slide show/PowerPoint on Bee-ing a Beekeeper. This year they incorporated my program into the short course and had Keith Fielder talk about requeening in the meeting immediately after the short course - that's too sophisticated for the beginner who needs a meeting on how to build hive boxes and frames, etc.

I think beekeeping organizations have a responsibility to keep the topics in the meetings interesting to beginners - not altogether of course, but at least in the immediate meeting following the short course, the meeting should be focused on the beginner.

On a personal note, I have been trying since November to get my blog approved by the powers that bee in the Master Beekeeping Program in Georgia as a "public service credit" I got a letter on Friday from Dr. Keith Delaplane (author of the current edition of Dadant's First Lessons in Beekeeping) saying that after looking at the blog they decided that it did indeed meet the requirements for a public service credit (it is now visited by over 175 visitors a day). Woooo Hoooo :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Linda T in Atlanta, smiling

Logged

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"You never can tell with bees" - Winnie the Pooh

Hooray!!!! I love your blog and check it every day. Your videos are great and I have tried a lot of things you have shown. I really loved the one about the solar wax melter. I made one myself, worked like a charm.